Did you know that more than 130 publicly traded companies in the U.S. are over 100 years old?  I was shocked at how many there were.  What are their secrets for the long term?  What can we learn?  

Let’s take a concrete example of a company that is celebrating 100 years - IBM.   Thomas Watson arrived in 1914 at a company then called The Tabulating Machine Company.  Watson focused the company around the biggest opportunity he saw which was the punch card system for data tabulation - eventually named IBM.  

What was unique about the strategy and culture Watson and his team created?  

You’ve likely spent time and effort defining your company’s long-term strategy, but what’s your time horizon when you think about the long term?  Maybe three to five years?  I would call that a medium term focus.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia, was experiencing very fast revenue growth. The company had the opportunity to expand into multiple worldwide retail chains.  It would have launched the business on a major growth spurt.  Instead, Chouniard and his team stepped back and said, “Whoa - let’s take a look at who we are and what we want to accomplish in this world as a company - over the very long term.”  

My favorite business book I read this year is Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown.  Greg describes the dilemma of many successful people.  As success piles up, so do more opportunities and more requests.  The list of opportunities grow bigger.  The temptation is to think you can do it all.  My gosh, look what you have achieved, and just think what more you can achieve if you continue to expand your efforts!  In one simple diagram, Greg captures the difference between the Essentialist’s way of life and the Non-Essentialist's way of life.  

In both cases, the same amount of energy is exerted.  However, on the right, there is much more progress.  On the left, the energy is divided into many different activities.  On the right, the energy is given to a singular purpose.  The result on the right is that by investing in fewer things, you have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most.  The Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many.